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route_292013-10-31 02:32 pm
these_balls) wrote in route_292013-10-31 02:32 pm
Entry tags:
Wake Up In The Morning Feeling Like Poke'Diddy
JOHTO AND KANTO REGIONS
DAY 31/10. 07:01.
The sun rises.
It's bright and early on a beautiful Halloween morning; the weather is warm for late autumn, and the sun is shining high in the clear blue sky. All across Johto and Kanto, people are waking up from what seems to be a very restful sleep — or maybe, given how stiff you feel, a sleep that lasted slightly too long to truly be called comfortable. Maybe you're greeted by your Pokemon; maybe you're hailed by a preset alarm going off on your Gear. Maybe you open your eyes to the relieved, tearstained faces of your friends, and experience that brief moment of bewilderment at what could possibly have made them so sad.
It seems as though everything's back to normal, now — or as normal as things get on an average day in Johto, at least.
Or has it?
Strangely enough, you might be experiencing phantom pain in places where you remember being wounded by — oh, but no, that was only a dream, wasn't it? And the fading redness of irritated skin on the back of your dominant hand, that...that could be anything.
You were here all week, your friends tell you. It was so strange, how abruptly you were knocked unconscious. We were so worried, you've been like that for days.
So was it a dream, really?
You count your Pokemon, and to your relief, they're all there — or perhaps, to your horror, they're not...
~
In Saffron City, a phone rings in the office of Gym Leader Sabrina.
One of the younger trainers, a budding Medium, is closest to the landline; following a hesitant glance at her otherwise busy colleagues, she tentatively picks up the phone and answers it.
A moment later, stock-straight, she's sprinting to fetch Sabrina herself, the phone's handset left unattended and off the hook on a nearby shelf.
There's a gym rule about interrupting Sabrina when she's in the middle of her periods of reflection and meditation, but this is an urgent matter, and she makes her frantic apologies in the same breath as the one that informs her Leader that there's a call, and she really needs to, um, it's just, she'd better go take it, so sorry, because it's—
Unflappable as ever, Sabrina follows her back to the phone and lifts it calmly to her ear.
"This is Gym Leader Sabrina," she answers.
"Burn that spellbook," the creaking old voice snaps.
Blinking in surprise, Sabrina checks the Caller ID. The display reads TOHJO FALLS.
"You burn that book," the voice repeats severely. "And never do that again."
And here we are, at the final infopost of the plot! It's been a great ride, and we really hope you all had a bunch of fun with our Halloween Plot for 2013! We definitely had a blast putting it together for you, and now all that's left is some wrap-up denouement, the awarding of prizes, and a few OOC notes for your edification!
As of 7:00 AM EST on October 31, all characters participating in Nightmare Castle will be returned to their bodies and will begin waking up! Because you achieved the GOOD END of the plot, it will be a beautiful day and your characters will not experience any feelings of doom and foreboding upon waking up. You will, however, feel a little groggy and stiff (understandable, after sleeping for a week!), and at some point you will briefly experience the lingering feeling that something that was wrong has now been set right. Characters are also welcome to feel an inexplicable and vague hostility toward Sabrina and the psychics in Saffron City for a short period after the plot; the force that caused this isn't too happy with her, after all, and some of that animosity might accidentally transfer via osmosis to the people it had its hooks in all week.
If you rescued all of your Pokemon from the three sigil doors, then congratulations! They're back with you, as is the rest of your active roster. If you failed to do so, however, you'll notice that the unrescued Pokemon's Pokeball is missing from your collection, and for a while into the future, seeing other Pokemon of that same type will elicit unexpected feelings of shame in the trainer. Enjoy your hint of psychic backlash on that one, but rest assured — your Pokemon will be well taken care of.
Possibly better taken care of than they were with you, if your failure to rescue them is any indication.
However, everyone in the game, regardless of whether they participated in the plot or not, will wake up on Halloween morning to discover an orange and black goody bag nearby, fastened shut with orange and black ribbons and emblazoned with...eerily enough, the character's name. And when they open the bag, they will find some fabulous goodies! What a Halloween treat.
Happy Halloween 2013, Routians! From all of us to you, we hope you've had a blast.
THE FABULOUS PRIZES
Okay, so now for the fun stuff. What do you get for winning the plot? Good question! We've got answers. You get:
• one (1) non-transferable reusable TM from any of the first five generations. Yes, that's right, they're back again! These are basically a TM that acts like an HM, except it cannot be shared. (NOTE: HMs are not applicable.)
• one (1) Pokemon apparel item of your choosing! You've got your Pokemon back; what better way to show them you love them than by helping them look fabulous?
• one (1) "trail mix" bag of treats including five Rare Candies, a dozen mixed Berries, and six Poffins of any flavor!
And as a special bonus for people who went on the plot...
• the opportunity to switch the ability of ONE (1) of your Pokemon with its Hidden Ability. You may only do this for one Pokemon, and that Pokemon must be one of the ones your character took with them on the plot; they're the only ones that have been to the Dream World (or have they?), and therefore the only ones that could've been affected by the jump back and forth between worlds.
Congratulations again, and enjoy your swag! If you have any questions about these prizes, please feel free to ask us here!
THE ADMINISTRATIVE STUFF
So, this was an adventure more along the lines of what we'd call an "objective-based plot", as opposed to an "effect/condition plot". It was also incredibly structured, involved a lot of mod updates, and generally took a lot of planning and attention from everyone concerned! That said, we'd really like to hear your thoughts and feedback on how it went for you; we asked this after we ran Prom, also, and we ended up using a lot of your input from Prom in the way we planned and structured this plot, so it'd be a big help to hear from you again!
One of the hardest things about running a plot like this is finding ways to accommodate everyone; admittedly, things might've been a little too ambitious to pack into the six days we'd allotted to run it, but we'd be wary of extending something like this too much longer than six days because we don't want people who aren't able to participate in the plot to feel cut off from the game and left with their hands tied for too long of a period. Some of that is always going to be a given; that's the trade-off of doing just about anything in a game with 100+ characters. However, we hope we managed to achieve a good (or at least a reasonable) balance between the length of the plot and the shenanigans we packed into it.
We were also experimenting with a new method of allowing players to directly impact the outcome of the plot — in this case, with the check-in participation requirement of the Final Battle Log, and the ability to permanently lose your character's Pokemon if you so desire. We'd really like to know if you thought that worked well, or if there were any problems with it that you experienced! If you enjoyed it, we can look into reusing that model again in the future, with subsequent plots.
TL;DR, it's been kind of a crazy ride, but we hope it's been just as much fun for you to play in as it's been for us to put on, and it'd be great to hear your thoughts so we can take them into consideration on other plots in the future.
~
☆ QUICK LINKS ☆
QUESTIONS FOR MODS | PLOT FEEDBACK THREAD
DAY 31/10. 07:01.
The sun rises.
It's bright and early on a beautiful Halloween morning; the weather is warm for late autumn, and the sun is shining high in the clear blue sky. All across Johto and Kanto, people are waking up from what seems to be a very restful sleep — or maybe, given how stiff you feel, a sleep that lasted slightly too long to truly be called comfortable. Maybe you're greeted by your Pokemon; maybe you're hailed by a preset alarm going off on your Gear. Maybe you open your eyes to the relieved, tearstained faces of your friends, and experience that brief moment of bewilderment at what could possibly have made them so sad.
It seems as though everything's back to normal, now — or as normal as things get on an average day in Johto, at least.
Or has it?
Strangely enough, you might be experiencing phantom pain in places where you remember being wounded by — oh, but no, that was only a dream, wasn't it? And the fading redness of irritated skin on the back of your dominant hand, that...that could be anything.
You were here all week, your friends tell you. It was so strange, how abruptly you were knocked unconscious. We were so worried, you've been like that for days.
So was it a dream, really?
You count your Pokemon, and to your relief, they're all there — or perhaps, to your horror, they're not...
In Saffron City, a phone rings in the office of Gym Leader Sabrina.
One of the younger trainers, a budding Medium, is closest to the landline; following a hesitant glance at her otherwise busy colleagues, she tentatively picks up the phone and answers it.
A moment later, stock-straight, she's sprinting to fetch Sabrina herself, the phone's handset left unattended and off the hook on a nearby shelf.
There's a gym rule about interrupting Sabrina when she's in the middle of her periods of reflection and meditation, but this is an urgent matter, and she makes her frantic apologies in the same breath as the one that informs her Leader that there's a call, and she really needs to, um, it's just, she'd better go take it, so sorry, because it's—
Unflappable as ever, Sabrina follows her back to the phone and lifts it calmly to her ear.
"This is Gym Leader Sabrina," she answers.
"Burn that spellbook," the creaking old voice snaps.
Blinking in surprise, Sabrina checks the Caller ID. The display reads TOHJO FALLS.
"You burn that book," the voice repeats severely. "And never do that again."
And here we are, at the final infopost of the plot! It's been a great ride, and we really hope you all had a bunch of fun with our Halloween Plot for 2013! We definitely had a blast putting it together for you, and now all that's left is some wrap-up denouement, the awarding of prizes, and a few OOC notes for your edification!
As of 7:00 AM EST on October 31, all characters participating in Nightmare Castle will be returned to their bodies and will begin waking up! Because you achieved the GOOD END of the plot, it will be a beautiful day and your characters will not experience any feelings of doom and foreboding upon waking up. You will, however, feel a little groggy and stiff (understandable, after sleeping for a week!), and at some point you will briefly experience the lingering feeling that something that was wrong has now been set right. Characters are also welcome to feel an inexplicable and vague hostility toward Sabrina and the psychics in Saffron City for a short period after the plot; the force that caused this isn't too happy with her, after all, and some of that animosity might accidentally transfer via osmosis to the people it had its hooks in all week.
If you rescued all of your Pokemon from the three sigil doors, then congratulations! They're back with you, as is the rest of your active roster. If you failed to do so, however, you'll notice that the unrescued Pokemon's Pokeball is missing from your collection, and for a while into the future, seeing other Pokemon of that same type will elicit unexpected feelings of shame in the trainer. Enjoy your hint of psychic backlash on that one, but rest assured — your Pokemon will be well taken care of.
Possibly better taken care of than they were with you, if your failure to rescue them is any indication.
However, everyone in the game, regardless of whether they participated in the plot or not, will wake up on Halloween morning to discover an orange and black goody bag nearby, fastened shut with orange and black ribbons and emblazoned with...eerily enough, the character's name. And when they open the bag, they will find some fabulous goodies! What a Halloween treat.
Happy Halloween 2013, Routians! From all of us to you, we hope you've had a blast.
Okay, so now for the fun stuff. What do you get for winning the plot? Good question! We've got answers. You get:
• one (1) Pokemon apparel item of your choosing! You've got your Pokemon back; what better way to show them you love them than by helping them look fabulous?
• one (1) "trail mix" bag of treats including five Rare Candies, a dozen mixed Berries, and six Poffins of any flavor!
And as a special bonus for people who went on the plot...
Congratulations again, and enjoy your swag! If you have any questions about these prizes, please feel free to ask us here!
So, this was an adventure more along the lines of what we'd call an "objective-based plot", as opposed to an "effect/condition plot". It was also incredibly structured, involved a lot of mod updates, and generally took a lot of planning and attention from everyone concerned! That said, we'd really like to hear your thoughts and feedback on how it went for you; we asked this after we ran Prom, also, and we ended up using a lot of your input from Prom in the way we planned and structured this plot, so it'd be a big help to hear from you again!
One of the hardest things about running a plot like this is finding ways to accommodate everyone; admittedly, things might've been a little too ambitious to pack into the six days we'd allotted to run it, but we'd be wary of extending something like this too much longer than six days because we don't want people who aren't able to participate in the plot to feel cut off from the game and left with their hands tied for too long of a period. Some of that is always going to be a given; that's the trade-off of doing just about anything in a game with 100+ characters. However, we hope we managed to achieve a good (or at least a reasonable) balance between the length of the plot and the shenanigans we packed into it.
We were also experimenting with a new method of allowing players to directly impact the outcome of the plot — in this case, with the check-in participation requirement of the Final Battle Log, and the ability to permanently lose your character's Pokemon if you so desire. We'd really like to know if you thought that worked well, or if there were any problems with it that you experienced! If you enjoyed it, we can look into reusing that model again in the future, with subsequent plots.
TL;DR, it's been kind of a crazy ride, but we hope it's been just as much fun for you to play in as it's been for us to put on, and it'd be great to hear your thoughts so we can take them into consideration on other plots in the future.
☆ QUICK LINKS ☆
QUESTIONS FOR MODS | PLOT FEEDBACK THREAD
LEAVE FEEDBACK HERE!
for those who like textarea boxes, we've provided this one for you:
We're looking forward to hearing from you!
no subject
What could we do better in the future? My only complaint was the way the mod-provided logs were set up. I can understand why they were done the way they were, but it wasn't the best set-up. As the sigils and days 2-5 were the actual meat of the event, there should have been a log for that instead of having us make scattered journal posts. And the day/night 1 logs probably could have been combined into one had you ditched the location subthreads and just let people make their own top-level comments with multiple location/time options. Does it look as organized this way? Not really, but it cuts down on the number of logs needed and it cuts down on the strain on a log itself. Because when a post has a small, set number of top-level comments, it can't separate into multiple pages to alleviate traffic. (which is a big part of the reason why the prom log is nigh unloadable now. 4000+ comments is a lot, no matter how you slice it, and it's going to make things run slow. But the fact that all 4000+ of them are on ONE page makes the problem a lot worse and it made it happen a lot faster.) The way it was was worked, but I think there were other ways that it could have been done that would have made it work even better.
Anything else? Nope, that's really it. A+ event in spite of the log thing. 10/10 would Nightmare Castle and fight Not-Chernobog again.
no subject
You raise a really good point, actually, and one I admittedly hadn't thought of. I remembered your comment from Prom about potentially splitting the logs from the get-go (hence the day log and night log this time around, hoping to keep the numbers relatively divided from the beginning and not overload the posts with comments), but it never occurred to me that having the subthreads also prevents the log from breaking up into multiple pages, which is a really good concern and one I feel we can definitely do better about addressing.
I'm usually the one who's a fanatic about organization and linking to everything, which is why I tend to default to the linked subthread format over the "everybody post en masse" free-for-all style. But maybe it'd be possible to hit the best of both worlds? What if, for example, instead of doing the "Quick Links" section linking to all the subthreads for the locations, we just included an empty table of locations in the post and linked to the individual threads that people created from it? That way, there'd still be the organization of knowing who was in which location at a glance, but at the same time it'd alleviate the loading issues by letting people spread out their comments rather than grouping them under a linkable header?
Granted, that'd make a little more work on our end, what with keeping the list updated over the course of the plot, but assuming people were willing to make the effort to drop off their links for us, I don't think it'd be too unmanageable a solution.
What do you think?
no subject
But a table doesn't sound like too bad of an idea! It's worth trying the next time we have a big event to see how well it works out in practice. Because it does seem like a lot of work for you guys unless you like...somehow involved gdocs so people could update it with their own links? But somehow that just seems to have the potential for making things an even bigger and more confusing clusterfuck. :|a
no subject
I'll definitely keep thinking about it, though, and maybe we can refine the system somehow to make it more feasible. I've also been toying with the idea of making a thread directory on the side in a separate post, with the location subthreads as a part of the directory and then people would just link their comments below the corresponding location on the directory, but I'm not sure if that'd be too unwieldy to have both a log post and a directory post for people to jump between. :|a
(ORGANIZATION!!!)
I definitely appreciate the input, though! It gives me something to think about, and hopefully the next time we run something as big as this, we'll have some kind of modified system that we can try out.
no subject
So no problem! I'm sure you'll figure out something that works. If I happen to have any lightbulbs myself, I'll let you know. Like I said though, the event was great overall so I can't really complain about anything. :)
no subject
And I really would love to hear any ideas you might have, so please do let us know if you come up with something!
(And obviously, it goes without saying that I'm glad you enjoyed the plot. c: )